I had the pleasure of visiting the gardens at Leeds Castle in England this past spring, and found them so inviting! Here are a few images, many of them taken at sunset.

England knows how to present gardens that really draw one in. Thanks for including us.

The Brits really do know how to design a garden. Sometimes formal gardens leave me feeling a little less than satisfied, but this one had so many levels, angles, curves, architectural elements, and picturesque vignettes that I spent several hours in it, as sunset gave way to dusk and then twilight.














Some of the colors in these photos (like this last one) look almost autumnal; but in fact, they were taken in late May. It was just the quality of late afternoon light.

wow... absolutely beautiful. The English are true masters of the garden.

Beautiful Mike, just beautiful.

WELL....I'm sooooo JEALOUS!
I want to go to England so bad!
Lucky you and as usual GORG pics!

Hope everybody had a great 4th of July.
Had the fam over for food, fun and fireworks.





June flush is over and I've got some MAJOR deadheading to do on the Rugosas.
I have no idea how I'm going to dead head my 6 x 6 ft plus Rugosas.
I'm thinking about just shearing them back.
Austins in bloom now but I only have around 8 of them.
Always greatly enjoy their often unique and wonderful fragrance.

Hi there rose friends!

Boy am I enjoying all these gorgeous photos!

Not much hope for rose blooms this year for me - this summer is turning out to be a total bust. We've barely gotten into the low 50's so far, it's July and we're still getting days with highs in the 40's. Haven't figured out where to post my complaints yet but there should be a rule against that .... Wet, wet, wet as well. My 14 year old daughter has never experienced a summer like this, which says something about how totally spoiled we've been for the past decade. This summer is like most of the summers of my childhood however, no needs for shorts or t-shirts at all. Not much need for summer clothes this year either - we're still wearing our winter coats most days. They're promising one summer day tomorrow with a high close to 60 - there was one day last week as well with a high around 58°F .... we're just getting crumbs of a summer.

Sooooo, I'll just have to live vicariously through all your fabulous photos!

I've been in the process of moving my garden so this wet, cool weather has been pretty ideal for that. The rose bushes aren't too happy about the move so I probably wouldn't have gotten many blooms anyway .... I guess it'll take them a couple of years to get settled in. They're currently in a "storage bed" with just the unamended soil that was in the garden and not very sheltered .... so now I'm in the process of making a temporary bed for them with amended soil and better shelter to store them for the winter. Hopefully I'll be able to get them settled in their permanent places next summer.
Rita - I LOVE those planters posted in the June thread btw - I need to make several raised beds and those are a inspiration! Absolutely stunning!

Thank you. I had to design something that would fit in that not very big space and look the way I wanted it too. It turned out great even if I do say so myself!

You can say so yourself all you want, Rita, it is WELL deserved.

Not much doing right now, but these are two of my favorites.

Easy Does It



Fourth of July. Going to have to trim these back a little--that's the neighbor's house in the background.

Thank you Debra. Lovely rose blooms you have this morning.

My roses are between flushes. The June spring flush is done, I prunned them and that means they bloom again in August. If course I didn't finish all the prunning with the excessive heat. They bloom again anyway but it makes the plants much taller If I don't prune.

Have some pruning to do, which is going to wait until I am child-free--and un-MS'd.

Always a list of something to do in the garden.

My roses are still leafing out ... There are a few that still hardly have any leaves .... There are a few buds on some of the pimpinellifolias though so there will be SOME blooms before fall ...

Roses grow in Iceland? Wow! I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Roses survive the extremes we have in Kansas. We go to 10 below in winter, and 110 heat in summer. Today was 106, and I have lots of roses blooming. Pretty sure I would be complaining if we didn't warm up by the time July rolled around, so go ahead and yell a bit, Rannveig!

Hi Cindi - the climate here is temperate - it doesn't get THAT cold in winter (20-40's with an occasional dip into 10's) ... but it doesn't get hot in summer either. I can live with high 50's with an occasional high in the 60's, but high 40's is just WRONG in July. That's where I draw the line. Not that it makes any difference at all .... high close to 60 yesterday and a very short burst of sunshine yesterday morning before it clouded up again .... 55°F today, 48°F forecasted high this weekend ... If I ever get a rose bloom open - I'll post a photo ...

It's so good to hear from you, Rann. I hope some of your roses bloom this year.

I've noticed something disturbing in my own garden this year. Several of my once flourishing roses have gradually dwindled down to one-cane wonders and now seem to be losing even that single cane (Baby Talk, Pillow Talk, Night Time, Lady X, and several others). I know it's not a problem related to the soil here or to my watering practices because they're growing in beds where other roses are still doing well. I did notice, though, that most of them belong to the first group of roses I planted when I moved into my present home 30 years ago. I wonder if they simply have a finite lifespan of 30 years or so. This isn't true of all roses, I know, because the President Herbert Hoover I've dragged from house to house over the years is now well over 40 and is still healthy and vigorous.